High calorie food ideas please

Toto

Hi

My daughter has glandular fever and is really sick. The poor thing can't swallow very well and has eaten nothing more than a few bites of scrambled egg and a few mouthfuls of soup over the past week and a half. She is losing weight fast and is now skin and bone already.

I've tried fruit smoothies and soups and she will sip those. She can't manage ice cream because the coldness is painful. Do you have any ideas for other puree type foods which are good for a 12 year old to eat, are nutritous and high calorie (to stop her losing any more weight).

I'd be ever so grateful for your thoughts.

rachbc

avocado is high fat and could be mashed, anything with dairy will be good and fattening so milk shakes/ smoothies made with full fat milk and even cream and oats, hot chocolate, soups rich in protien (chicken, lentil) not just veggies will help build her up, porriadge made with full fat milk.

Poor thing hope she is on the road to recovery soon

xx_Jo_xx

Toto - I know this must be a really worrying time for you, but as long as you can keep her fluids up, try not to worry too much about her weight.

Keep going with the fruit smoothies - try bananas which will provide her with potassium which she may not be getting from other sources.

Same with the soups, lots of veg like pototoes etc to give her carbs and also put in oats and some lentils to give her protein.

If she can manage yoghurt you can help keep her calcium up too - and can always puree some extra fruit into it too.

I had it as an adult and it was awful - I was ill for weeks and had to sit my driving test when I had it! Whenever I got the cold for years after it always seemed to come back!! Have been rid of it for a long while now though and hopefully *touch wood* have seen the last of it!

HTH xx

skintmostofthetime

Try childrens yogurts - they should be higher in fat etc than the usual stuff.If you leave them out of the fridge for a short while they won't be too cold for her. Also - there's always homemade soup of course.
I had radiotherapy on my throat some years ago and found this was helpful to me because I couldn't eat anything at all.
Hope she's good agian soon.

Gigervamp

Your poor daughter. I had glandular fever when I was 15 and was off school for 6 weeks, so I know how she feels.

Have you tried protein drinks? You can usually get them in health food shops. Or what about Complan or Slimfast?

I hope she feels better soon.

greenbee

I had to feed my mother a high-calorie, high-protein diet when she came out of hospital a couple of years ago.

One of the most important things is to make the food appetising and present small quantities so that they don't feel overwhelmed.

Scrambled egg with ricotta rather than milk is good for breakfast.

Mid-morning I would do a smoothie which would include half a banana and a yogurt, a little orange juice and whatever fruit I thought would make it attractive.

For lunch I would do a tiny bowl of chicken broth, followed by a small plate with a couple of slices of avocado, a spoonful of ricotta, a spoonful of humous, a couple of carrot sticks or cucumber slices on it, followed by a spoonful of yogurt with a couple of slices of banana and a drizzle of honey.

Afternoon would be another smoothie (I used Superjuice, which has high-calorie ones in it), which would be a bit more substantial, or a fairy cake with a couple of slices of fruit.

Supper would be either soup (summer soups like pea and mint are good, as they don't have to be hot) with cream/yogurt/creme fraiche stirred in (present it in a pretty small bowl) with a small bit of soft bread and butter, or risotto made with chicken stock and veggies. Pudding could be a couple of strawberries and a slice or two of banana with a drizzle of cream or fromage frais, or a spoonful of rice pudding (made with milk & cream) with a dollop of some kind of stewed fruit.

Just to reiterate, keep the portions small and attractive. If she wants more you can give it to her, but don't overwhelm her, and let her take time over her meals.

Fairy cakes are good to have around. I cooked batches of them and kept them in the freezer - when I went back to work it meant that my dad had plenty for the next few weeks.

Meal replacements/supplements are also a good idea. Ask your GP about it. There is a high calorie drink (tastes NOTHING like fruit juice, but apparently when you're ill it's actually OK :rolleyes: ), and some horrible pots of stuff that's a bit like angel delight, so easy to eat and stuffed full of extra calories & protein.

Good luck, and hope she gets well soon.

Idiophreak

Could look at different kinds of milkshakes, maybe - I used to have plenty of the Mars shakes when I was recovering from meningitis (and couldn't force many things down, etc) - they're smoothe to drink, but high in calories.

Also, sounds dumb, but look at the slimfast shakes - they're designed to be a meal in drink form, which sounds exactly what you are after. I was given some stuff when I came out of hospital, like a cross between nesquik and "weightgain 4000" or whatever it is - but in retrospect, slimfast is more or less the same stuff..

baby_fuzz

I imagine sports drinks like lucozade and gatorade would be very high in calories, so perhaps you could give her a few energy drinks alongside her food?

SunnyGirl

Will she eat the Rolo, Milky Bar & Aero type deserts? My DD was underweight at 11yrs old & these helped. She also liked them so it wasn't hard to get them down her. The only problem was hiding them from her brothers! Also ice cream? It may be what she fancies if she's run down. Poor thing I hope she gets better soon (((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))))))) to her.

bex2002

When i was really sick last year with a virus i had to have 8 weeks off work and a hospital admission - i couldnt eat and could barely drink, i was drinking coke cos it is high in calories and sugar - my doc said this was prob quite a good thing to have conisdering i was very limited in what i could have and ended up on 20 tablets a day to try and control the sypmtoms.

young_victor_meldrew

I have recently been advised I need to up my protein as part of my Gym routine. I found a website called MyProtein that sells high quality protein products, at affordable prices.

One of the best sources of protein is WHEY protein, they sell this on the site and it comes in
both flavoured (strawberry, chocolate vanilla) ect and unflavoured that can be added to shakes, smoothies, ect to give them an extra protein boost.

They also stock a weight gain product.

The protein bars are quite nice - a bit like jaffa cakes, ect. If you put in this discount code at the checkout MP81027 you get 5% off the total cost as well.

If I need a protein boost I normally make a protein smoothie. When I have more time, if you like I can send some ideas across.